Trouble in paradise

I went with Plan International to the south-west of the Dominican Republic, the poorest part of the country.

The village of La Peñuela sits between the mountains and a swamp. Only banana trees and some sugar cane are grown here. In the past they cultivated coffee, but the market price dropped and most of the people in the village are now jobless.

On the day I arrived, the village looked quite idyllic: it was a sunny day, all the houses were brightly coloured, there was a friendly atmosphere. It seemed an easy-going life - like the poor version of paradise. It was difficult to imagine that child mortality could be high here.

A few days later, Hurricane Dennis passed through the Caribbean and the village was affected by some heavy rains. The scene changed rapidly: the streets became rivers, houses were flooded and there was no electricity.

It took the storm to make me realise that this is a village at risk. Children were playing in the sewage-filled water, refrigerators were not working and people had to cook on wood fires.

Over the next few days, the regional hospital admitted quite a lot of children. I met parents whose children had diarrhoea, lung infections and burns.

So the village of La Peñuela, which looked idyllic at first sight, is in fact living on the edge.

· For the last decade Tim Dirven (Belgian) has balanced working for the Belgian newspaper De Morgen with pursuing personal projects. He won the Fuji press award in 1999 for his feature on the Yemen, and a World Press Award for his work in Afghanistan in 2002. Yesterday's People, his photographic study of the changing face of rural society around the globe, will be published in January 2006 by the Antwerp Photomuseum.

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